A struggle to gain social justice took place during 1950-the 1960s, and this movement, known as the civil rights movement, was a way for African Americans to gain equal rights under the law in the United States. Although the civil war abolished slavery, this did not mean the end of a long period of discrimination that still effects African Americans today.

They have continued to endure the devastating effects of racism, and the impacts are often felt to be worse in the South.

One of the biggest goals of the civil rights movement was to desegregate public schools across the United States. Since the 1930s, the NAACP strategized to bring local lawsuits to court, arguing that separate was not equal and that “every child, regardless of race, deserved a first-class education.”[1] These lawsuits were united in the breakthrough Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case that made segregation in schools illegal in 1954. A further decision was reached in 1976, during the Runyon v. McCrary case.[2] The Supreme Court ruled that when private schools denied admission to students based on race this also constituted racial discrimination and violated federal civil rights laws. Brown v. Board of Education set a legal precedent that would be used to overturn segregation laws in other public facilities, and Runyon v. McCrary emphasized that all persons should have the right to enter into and enforce contracts regardless of race.[3] Despite the impact of these decisions made at either end of the civil rights movement, it would be many years before the goal of integrating schools across the United States was actually achieved.

There were several photographers and artists working during the civil rights movement, but one artist in particular was responding to these issues of education during this period. Born in Chicago, Charles Wilbert White attended The Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York City.[4] He also taught at the George Washington Carver School in New York from 1943 to 1945 and was an artist-in-residence at Howard University in Washington, DC, in 1945.

Charles was best known for documenting African American-related subjects in paintings, drawings, lithographs, and murals. He painted murals such as The Contribution of the Negro to American Democracy in a Social Realist style. Painted in 1943 over three months, the mural at Hampton University was part of a series celebrating African American historical figures and highlighting the African American community's struggle for equality in all forms of life.

Charles White had a  strong commitment to creating powerful images of African Americans.[5] He was working during a period when the lack of representation of African Americans in art went unnoticed. Both important and everyday African Americans feature as his subjects, and they are often drawn in slightly exaggerated ways to emphasize their strength. In addition to documenting important moments of history and the contributions of African Americans, his style of Social Realism aimed to also counter negative stereotypes associated with working class people.

White’s 1961 charcoal drawing titled Awaken from the Unknowing highlights his interest in education. This piece of art details a Black woman sitting at a table, with piles of paper spread out before her while her head falls in fatigue along her shoulder and rests in her hand. During the civil rights movement, this image helped to represent the multifaceted struggle for equality in America.[6]

In Awaken from the Unknowing, White shows an intimate image of a young woman who symbolizes the hope of many African Americans after the ruling in 1954. Seven years prior to the drawing, the Supreme Court had unanimously agreed that racial segregation in public schools violated the 14th Amendment's mandate of equal protection of the laws of the U.S Constitution, thereby entitling students to a quality public school education regardless of their race. The work is also a testament to White's reverence for learning. He attended a predominately white high school, where his teachers actively banned discussion of Black contributions to American society from their curriculum.[7] In his own words, he recalls learning about the history of art in high school where he “would bring up the name… of Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner and Frederick Douglass… the painters, Bannister and Tanner” to  teachers who “answered smugly and often angrily…” that they were not going to cover that material.[8] His own educational experience clearly impacted the style and chosen subjects of his own artwork.

Awaken from the Unknowing employs deep compressed charcoal, along with brown and gray vine charcoal, to create rich gradations in tone and contrasting values. By rubbing and erasing, White created softer gradient tones in the face and arms of the subject, while he scratched the paper to produce the natural texture of her hair and loosely sketched the books in the foreground. The scattered work and weight of the subject’s head adds to the overall emotion behind the work.[9] The emotion the subject is feeling, however, is slightly ambiguous.

The subject of the work is clearly tired, exhausted or perhaps even in a state of distress. The work was completed during a period when the social and civil rights movements throughout the country were making big waves. The emotion that the subject is feeling could be as a result of the educational material in front of her, but the work could also be capturing the exhaustion and distress of being in a state of “unknowing.” This could refer to not having the necessary knowledge because of a lack of access to education, or of not knowing what will happen and what opportunities will be available during this time of turmoil or in the future.

In Awaken from the Unknowing, White masterfully represents the complex emotions of his subject through his creative and expressive techniques. The woman pushes her hair back from her forehead to highlight not just her own frustration, but the frustration of all the Black women that she stands for during this time period. Throughout his life Charles White always valued education, and he sought to use art as an educational tool to highlight African American figures and demonstrate an abundance of knowledge through his works of art.

 [1] “School Segregation and Integration,” Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/articles-and-essays/school-segregation-and-integration/

[2] Runyon v. McCrary, 427 U.S. 160 (1976)

[3] “Brown v. Board of Education.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, October 27, 2009. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/brown-v-board-of-education-of-topeka.

[4] Spending most of his career in Chicago and Los Angeles, he died in 1979, Los Angeles. White's work is included in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's permanent collections and many more. White was dedicated to arts education and teaching, with Kerry James Marshall being one of his many students at the Otis Art Institute.

[5]"Charles White." Artist Info. Accessed November 17, 2021. https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.3394.html#biography.  

[5] "Charles White: Moma." The Museum of Modern Art. Accessed November 17, 2021. https://www.moma.org/artists/6339.    

[6] Jamaliah King, “Inside the Art of the Civil Rights Movement,” Colour Lines, April 29 2014: https://www.colorlines.com/articles/inside-art-civil-rights-movement.

[7] "Charles White." The Museum of Modern Art. Accessed November 17, 2021. https://www.moma.org/artists/6339. 

[8] Richard A. Courage, “Charles White and the Black Chicago Renaissance,” International Review of African American Art, http://iraaa.museum.hamptonu.edu/page/Charles-White-and-the-Black-Chicago-Renaissance

[9] “Awaken from the Unknowing: Hammer Museum." Awaken from the Unknowing | Hammer Museum. Accessed November 17, 2021. https://hammer.ucla.edu/now-dig-this/art/awaken-from-the-unknowing. 

References

"Awaken from the Unknowing: Hammer Museum." Hammer Museum. Accessed November 17, 2021. https://hammer.ucla.edu/now-dig-this/art/awaken-from-the-unknowing.

Blanton Museum of Art - awaken from the unknowing. Accessed November 17, 2021. https://collection.blantonmuseum.org/objects-1/info/20366?sort=0.

“Brown v. Board of Education.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, October 27, 2009. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/brown-v-board-of-education-of-topeka.

"Charles White." Artist Info. Accessed November 17, 2021. https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.3394.html#biography.

"Charles White,” The Museum of Modern Art. Accessed November 17, 2021. https://www.moma.org/artists/6339.

Courage, Richard A. “Charles White and the Black Chicago Renaissance,” International Review of African American Art, http://iraaa.museum.hamptonu.edu/page/Charles-White-and-the-Black-Chicago-Renaissance

“School Segregation and Integration   Articles and Essays:  Civil Rights History Project:  Digital        Collections:  Library of Congress.” The Library of Congress. Accessed December 13, 2021. https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/articles-and-essays/school-segregation-and-integration/.

King, Jamaliah. “Inside the Art of the Civil Rights Movement,” Colour Lines, April 29 2014: https://www.colorlines.com/articles/inside-art-civil-rights-movement

"What We Are Loving: Charles White's Mural at Hampton University." Distinction, December 7, 2019. https://distinctionva.com/what-were-loving-charles-whites-mural-at-hampton-university/.

Citation: Hoard, Nin. “Charles W. White: Capturing the Emotion of the Civil Rights Era.” Journal of Art and Theatre, vol. 1, no.1 (2022): 9-13.